‘Raise Your Voice’ Archives
Millions In Motion
By Peter Molenaar The people in this neighborhood of the world have yet another opportunity to experience an enhanced human connection””to elicit a smile and eye contact from the Arab people among us. For example, don”'t just plop coins on the counter at the corner convenience store, but boldly ask: “What”'s your opinion regarding the Egyptian Revolution?” You are likely to discover a knowledgeable person. Why the commotion in Arab lands? In Egypt, we are told, the corruption of the old regime cost more than $6 billion in public money per year. Estimates of the former president”'s accumulated fortune range as high as $70 billion. Mubarek”'s good buddies became merely billionaires while millions lived on less than $2 per day. Heartless brutality appears as the hallmark of a regime which sadly was considered to have been a “good friend of the United States”. (more…)
Consequences
by Peter Molenaar Hopefully, a good many visited “Dances with Wolves” as seen again on public television. Certainly, it stands as one of the most beautiful and edifying of films”¦ “Your life is like a pebble dropped into a sea creating ripples endlessly”¦you do not know the end of a thought, action or word.”””attributed to White Eagle. In the aftermath of Tucson, there occurred a simultaneous prayer. I too bowed my head. We sought to limit the swelling of Congresswoman Giffords”' brain. My ancestors were agricultural pioneers in Kandiyohi County to the west. They arrived two decades after the Dakota War of 1862 to settle the left-over spots. Like good Dutch people, they drained the land. (more…)
What Democracy Looks Like
by Peter Molenaar From the November/December issue of “Teamster” magazine: Did you know that more than 750 Teamster women recently marched through downtown Minneapolis, coloring the city in a sea of pink and black rally signs? The chant “We”'re Teamsters! We fight! We fight for workers”' rights!” was amplified by sky-scraper acoustics. The refrain “Workers ”˜Yes”', Wall Street ”˜No”'” echoed”¦ The photo-journalist who covered the 2010 Teamsters Women”'s Conference depicted the event with a multi-racial/multi-national collage. One beaming face was adorned by the Muslim hajib. Message: no order of prejudicial exclusion is to be tolerated by our union movement. Did you know that some 600 Teamsters National Black Caucus members recently walked gallantly through the streets of Washington, D.C.? “Civil rights and workers”' rights go hand-in hand” was the theme. The 47th anniversary [...]
